An open fight against the National Socialist movement is expected to be launched by the Catholic Church in view of an announcement by Count Ernest von Reventlow that the National Socialists plan to estrange the Catholic youth from the Church. Count Reventlow, one of the Hitlerite leaders, made the announcement in connection with the decision of the Catholic Church to excommunicate all Catholics affiliating with the Hitlerites.
Great excitement has been created among the Catholic parties here by Count Reventlow’s statement in which he said that because the Church is excommunicating Catholics who join the Hitlerites the Catholic youth is abandoning the Church. This is interpreted as the first official announcement by a Hitlerite leader that the National Socialists plan to draw the Catholic youth away from the Church.
Count Reventlow also charged that it was the “Jewish influenced press” that announced after the National Socialists’ election victory that they were planning a putsch, thus “greatly damaging German interests.” He cited as an example of the influence of the Jews the fact that German bonds were strong on Rosh Hashanah while the Jews were in the synagogues but on the next day the prices fell “causing tremendous losses to the German people.” There are only two parties in Germany, he said, “the Hitlerites and the Jews.”
The Archbishop of Mainz recently issued a decree forbidding Catholics in his diocese from joining the Hitlerites under pain of excommunication. The Catholic Church is opposed to the Hitlerites because their program is incompatible with the teachings of Catholicism.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
